Summer Arts Entrepreneurship & Technology

Hello All,

It was a most enjoyable class this summer, and went by way too quickly. I feel everyone got the hang of "Arts Entrepreneurship & Technology"--the greater, higher wealth--truth and virtue--is from where all lasting wealth derives.

Call that bluff as you write your final business plan. It isn't easy bringing a new venture into the world, and there're a lot of people selling snakeoil regarding how to "get rich quick." But all lasting value comes from hard work, constant innovation, and the consistent discipline it takes to perform a top-notch job, time and time again.

Know that the journey is a long, hard road, but also keep in mind that the biggest risk you take is never setting off on down that road. File those provisional patents! Register those trademarks! Take a couple hours and file some copyrights! Incorporate! Register a domain or two. It can all be accomplished in a few hours, and as way leads onto way, that first step is a vast one.

In fact, the greatest risk one faces in entreprneurship is not taking that first step.

"Way leads unto way" comes from a poem--I'm sure you've seen it before:

TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Well, you all know that's Robert Frost. What's the market cap of his collected works? What's the P/E ratio? When contemplating value, always keep the fundamentals in mind, and always remember the difference between money and wealth--they can print money, but wealth you've got to create. Always focus on the higher ideals, and by and by the bottom line shall follow. As Socrates said to his fellow Athenians,



"I honor and love you: but why do you who are citizens of this great and mighty nation care so much about laying up the greatest amount of money and honor and reputation, and so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul. Are you not ashamed of this? . . . I do nothing but go about persuading you all, not to take thought for your persons and your properties, but first and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul. I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man."


IF.....
by Rudyard Kipling
IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss, And lose,
and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, '
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son! (or woman, my daughter).

Finally, Benjamin Franklin came up with a list of thirteen virtues:

1. TEMPERANCE. Eat not to dullness; drink not to elevation.
2. SILENCE. Speak not but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.
3. ORDER. Let all your things have their places; let each part of your business have its time.
4. RESOLUTION. Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
5. FRUGALITY. Make no expense but to do good to others or yourself; i.e., waste nothing.
6. INDUSTRY. Lose no time; be always employ'd in something useful; cut off all unnecessary actions.
7. SINCERITY. Use no hurtful deceit; think innocently and justly, and, if you speak, speak accordingly.
8. JUSTICE. Wrong none by doing injuries, or omitting the benefits that are your duty.
9. MODERATION. Avoid extreams; forbear resenting injuries so much as you think they deserve.
10. CLEANLINESS. Tolerate no uncleanliness in body, cloaths, or habitation.
11.TRANQUILLITY. Be not disturbed at trifles, or at accidents common or unavoidable.
12. CHASTITY. Rarely use venery but for health or offspring, never to dulness, weakness, or the injury of your own or another's peace or reputation.
13. HUMILITY. Imitate Jesus and Socrates.

Franklin originally set down just twelve virtues, but then realized he'd left out the most important one--HUMILITY. Imitate Jesus and Socrates. Humility will be your best friend on the long journey on out--as an entrepreneur you must stay humble before the higher ideals and the bottom line, before your customers and your employees alike. Well, take ownership in those business plans! Dream the dream in the words--do not be lead by deadlines and assigments, but always make sure you're working for your those greater, enduring goals--those dreams that make you you, for that is where all lasting wealth derives from--owning one's destiny.

Best of luck with all those futue ventures, and remember all the entrepreneurship resources on the class's websites.